I was always convinced it was “no-legged child”. I shook my head at the story of Reflex, the poor, legless boy with no friends.

Sure, Reflex always THOUGHT he had friends, but the other boys and girls were really making fun of him. He would wait by the park gate as the other children played, believing they would eventually put him on the swing. They constantly convinced him patches of clover were “lucky”, then persuaded him to watch the clover as they played tag (which his lack of legs made an impossible game). Sometimes, when they were particularly cruel, the neighborhood tykes would leave Reflex out past sundown, claiming that he was in charge of “finding treasures” since they all had to go home to dinner and bed.

@AJ Shephard: I can only speak for this particular Only Child and say yes. Until, of course, the figments of your imagination start talking to you. At which point you’re not lonely anymore. Just not quite sane anymore. *twitch*

Lonely, or only, it doesn’t matter. It’s not true. Reflex (and existentialism) require the response to the act of being and doing. It requires input from outside of the self in order to evaluate and analyze the self.